Tavares Done for Season With Torn MCL, and Islanders Refocus

Standard Recovery Time Is Six to Eight Weeks

ENLARGE

Chris Young, Eric Young Jr. and Curtis Granderson work out Thursday at the Mets' spring-training facility in Florida.
Reuters

By

Dave Caldwell

Feb. 20, 2014 8:54 p.m. ET

SYOSSET, N.Y.—Among the Islanders who took the ice for an hour-long practice on Thursday was Kyle Okposo, the ferocious right wing, stoic alternate captain—and cause celebre on Long Island some 50 days earlier.

Last month, Okposo, a Minnesota native, was passed over for a spot on the American team going to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The next day, he was bathed with "U.S.A.! U.S.A!" chants by Islanders' fans.

Had he been selected, Okposo would have faced his Islanders' teammate and captain, 23-year-old John Tavares, in Sochi. Now, neither player will be on the ice when the U.S. faces Canada in the Olympic semifinals on Friday. The Islanders said Thursday that Tavares sustained a torn MCL and meniscus in his left knee while playing against Latvia on Wednesday, and that he will miss the rest of the NHL season.

Asked if NHL players should continue playing in the Winter Games, especially after what happened to Tavares, Okposo replied, "I'm not going to talk about that. That's for the owners and the league and the [NHL Players Association] to decide."

He continued, "Anytime you strap on your pads, you take a risk of being hurt... Life goes on. We're going to have to play this bunch of games."

And so the Islanders will, beginning Thursday with a game at Nassau Coliseum against Toronto. When the NHL resumes play Tuesday after the Olympic break, the Islanders (22-30-8) will be 12 points out of a playoff berth—and, now without their best player, who was third in the NHL in scoring.

Islanders coach Jack Capuano said Tavares will likely stay in Sochi until the medals ceremony, then will return home to be evaluated further by team doctors. The standard period of recovery for a torn MCL is six to eight weeks.

"If you just go back and look how important he is to our team, it's a big blow," Capuano said. "But again, it's not about us, it's not about our team. It's about making sure that Johnny gets the right care moving forward."

In an interview Thursday with Newsday, Islanders general manager Garth Snow sharply criticized the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation for borrowing NHL stars for the Winter Games without compensating injured players or their teams.

"Are the IIHF or IOC going to reimburse our season-ticket holders now?" Snow said. "It's a joke. They want all the benefits from NHL players in the Olympics and don't want to pay when our best player gets hurt."

Capuano acknowledged that such an injury "is in the back of a lot of guys in the organization's minds when you players going over there."

But he stopped and said, "But you know what? It's a great opportunity to represent your country."

Snow will almost certainly become a seller between Sunday, when the Olympics' roster freeze is lifted, and the March 5 trade deadline. All but sure to go is Thomas Vanek, the forward who was acquired from Buffalo early in the season for Matt Moulson and two draft picks.

Vanek, who becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season, played for Austria in Sochi and had only one assist, perhaps diminishing his trade value. A linemate of Tavares and Okposo, he has 15 goals and 25 assists in 44 games with the Islanders.

If the Islanders finish among the bottom 10 teams in the NHL, Snow will have the option to delay the first-round pick he traded to Buffalo for Vanek to 2015. (Buffalo also acquired the Islanders' 2015 second-round pick in the trade.) The Islanders are now 26th among 30 NHL teams.

Capuano was asked after Thursday's practice if he'd seen the play in which Latvia's Arturs Kulda threw a hip check into Tavares, pinning Tavares's left leg against the boards.

"It was just a hockey play, really," Capuano said. "There are a lot of hits like that during the course of a game. He was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time."

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